CP Opening Day May 12 - trip report & park changes

[countess_of_tuscany]

My mom, fiancé Jeff (count_of_tuscany), and I went to Cedar Point's opening day on Saturday, May 12 and had a super great time! All in all, they made some great improvements to the park! Here is a bit about our day, as well as the changes we saw to the park:

As soon as we got there, we saw there was a giant dino between the parking lot and the season pass center area - made me so excited for Dinosaurs Alive! (I love dinos!) We got there around 8:30am and the line was already pretty long to get in near the main entrance gates. When we got in at 9, we headed straight to Millennium. On our way there, we noticed that the Celebration Plaza was in its construction phase still (no surprise there!), but it looks like it's going to be awesome! They have some pretty cool new curvy concrete benches all along the midway over there. It looked so strange without WildCat there - so bare! And was much quieter in the area later in the day - we were always so used to hearing the loud cars on the rickety track. Kind of missed it!

On our way over to Millennium for our first ride, we noticed that we hadn't seen it testing yet since we'd been there, and when we got near the ride, we noticed that it was closed due to mechanical reasons. The line for it was already curved way out to almost the Red Garter. We were looking for Single Rider Bob and sure enough, we spotted him near the front of the line and waved to him! He is so awesome!

Since Millennium was down, we decided to go on Maverick. On our way over, we noticed some changes. The big tree right as you enter Frontier Trail was cut down, which was really noticeable. The woodworking shop is now the Toy Barn (I'm pretty sure that's what it's called, I can't remember exactly), and the woodworking shop is located in the building that used to have the make-your-own-teddy bears. (The teddy bear making machine is now in the Toy Barn.) Also, we noticed that the water wheel on the building near Snake River Falls was working, and there was a waterfall coming down. I did not personally remember that always being on, but I could be wrong. When we got to Maverick, the line was already up in the building near the stairs (near the single rider line), so we hardly waited at all for that. Had a super great first ride of the CP season!

After a few more rides, we headed over to Dinosaurs Alive and waited there for about a half hour for the ribbon cutting ceremony to start at 11. We were some of the first people to go into Dinosaurs Alive, and it was awesome! The most awesome part about it was the view of Millennium - WOW! I have never seen it from that angle before (I was on Terror Island during Halloweekends, but it was too dark and foggy to see anything.) The view was truly amazing, it was so crazy to see Millennium from such obscure angles! We took some great pictures of it which I will post later.

Throughout the rest of the day, rides were breaking down left and right (which we expected because it seems to happen every opening day.) Overall, throughout the day, the only major rides that we never saw broken down (or riding empty) were Raptor, Power Tower, Iron Dragon, MeanStreak, Dragster (surprisingly!), and Mantis. (Some of those may have been down at one point, we just didn't see it.) Every other major ride was closed at least once throughout the day. Usually we say "what ride should we go on next?" but it got to the point where were just saying "what ride is open?!"

Instead of being upset and annoyed that the rides were all closing and things weren't working, we just made a joke out of the whole thing and made up a song about it, adding lines to it as we observed, such as "Mine Ride don't work, Millennium don't work, Go Karts got stuck, ran out of meat (they ran out of meat at Los Gatos!), and so on. We were really having a lot of fun with this - we always manage to have a great time at Cedar Point no matter what - just being there is a blast! We won't let broken rides ruin our day!

Some of the other changes we noticed that I didn't mention above were:

* New elevator lift systems on mostly every major ride for disabled accessibility

* New Fast Pass lanes, and some re-routed regular lines on:

*Power Tower (entrance is now across from Dragster, closer to Corkscrew)

*Iron Dragon (entrance is near the opposite side of the station than it used to be on)

* "Tornado Shelter Area" signs on restrooms

* New menus at Johnny Rockets

* Some new wood on the turnstiles in line for Gemini

* Parts of MeanStreak are re-tracked (still just as bumpy in my opinion! but I love that ride!)

* Big LED scrolling sign in front of the parking booths (I'm almost positive they are new, I don't remember them being there)

* Random dinos throughout the park!

* New electronic lockers (which I'm confused about - do they open all day, or are they a one-time-open like they used to be?)

* Pagoda gift shop is now tiled with a light-colored floor instead of a darker carpet. In my opinion, it looked so much better with carpet.

* New awesome lights on Giant Wheel, Power Tower, and Millennium Force. The Giant Wheel is definitely the most impressive - it's almost hypnotic looking at it! I stared at it for literally 5 minutes straight while my mom and Jeff were in the restroom, and I never saw the same design twice.

* Cheese-on-a-sticks are about half the size that they used to be and more expensive. (Glad we get 2 free drinks with them with our platinum pass!)

* No more "It's a good call!" sign near Raptor by Game Day Grille (we used to love that sign, and always made that hand gesture and said "It's a good call!" while at the park.) Most people probably wouldn't miss this sign, but we always laughed at it for some reason. We miss it! We find funniness in the weirdest things.. We even took one of our pictures near it at our engagement photo shoot last October:

There are probably many more changes we noticed (we were sure to point them out as we came across them) but I can't think of any more at the moment. If I think of any more, I will post them!

It was definitely the most memorable opening day we've been to! We were laughing so many times throughout the day! Weather was beautiful all day too. I have some pictures that we took that I will upload when I get them on my computer. Although many rides were on-and-off closed, we did manage to get 17 rides in and a Dinosaurs Alive experience:

1 Maverick

1 Wicked Twister

1 Corkscrew

2 Gemini

2 Magnum

1 MeanStreak

1 Blue Streak

1 Mine Ride

1 Wave Swinger

1 Disaster Transport

1 Iron Dragon

1 Sky Ride (that ride is freaky!)

1 Space Spiral

1 CP & LE Railroad

1 Tilt-A-Whirl

Thanks for reading!

[bkroz]

Improvements, improvements, improvements!

So awesome to hear about the great changes taking place at the Cedar Fair parks this season. Infrastructure is receiving a much-needed refurbishment, which I love. Some things are just so nonsensical, like Power Tower's old entrance being so far from the main midway. Whether you were coming or going, you'd pass the old entrance by time you got to see the ride in action! It just makes sense to change it. Lighting packages are great, and I'm happy to hear they're noticeable.

Sounds like I chose the wrong year to take a break from the Cedar Fair parks... Or maybe it'll make trips that much sweeter when I return in a year or two, with a whole new atmosphere in a whole new park.

Thanks!

[IndyGuy4KI]

Awesome TR, looking forward to seeing the pics!

[jcgoble3]

Excellent TR! I look forward to seeing the photos!

[beastrider97]

I noticed from reading other trip reports, that TTD has the first train in the station allocated to Fast Lane while the other is standby. Is this true? How did it effect the line? I would imagine a 1 train in the station for the regular line to greatly increase the wait time.

[thekidd33]

^What seats aren't filled by Fast Lane users are filled from the standby line. It is not used only for Fast Lane.

[The Interpreter]

What seats aren't filled by Fast Lane users? What? At Cedar Point?

[countess_of_tuscany]

I don't really know anything about the Fast Lane at TTD because we didn't ride it on opening day - the regular line looked like it would have taken hours. The longest Fast Lane line that I saw was Millennium. (which we didn't ride because whenever it wasn't broken down, the regular line was insane). I saw the Fast Lane line from the train - it wraps around to the front of the station, near where the ride operator is - I just saw it for a quick second while passing it.

[PhantomTheater]

TTD is Load one Fast Lane ONLY. Load two general public.

[count_of_tuscany]

I echo Leah's comments. The only places where I noticed no improvements were the bathrooms. The hand dryer on the right in the bathroom near Scrambler hasn't worked since last year and they still have the terribly inefficient hand dryers in the bathroom before the entrance to the park. I think my favorite of the opening day non-working items was the go karts. We were on our way up the lift hill of the Magnum and Leah noticed that both karts that were on the track were completely stopped with people in them. One of the was crashed into the barrier wall. Perhaps it is standard practice to stop all riders if one of them stops but either way it was so appropriate and we were laughing hysterically!

[Browntggrr]

^CP's carts have a safety stop when one of the carts "crashes".

Once the "crashed" cart is pointed in the correct direction, the stop is released and racing resumes.

[Pillsberry123]

I may have to make a trip up there this year. Skipped out last year, but this year sounds like a definite visit.

Not sure how I feel about Dinosaurs Alive becoming an institution in multiple parks, but it's something that attracts families so I guess it's a good thing.

Good to see infrastructure improving, and I can't wait to see what they decide to do with that Midway where Wildcat used to be. Fast Lane was something that was needed at the park too. Good to see Millennium getting a paint job too.

[beastrider97]

TTD is Load one Fast Lane ONLY. Load two general public.

If this is correct, isn't it significant increasing the wait time?

[PKIVortex]

I honestly think CP needs to Limit how many times someone can ride thru Fast Lane at certain rides, like what KD did with Volcano. YOu should have seen the Fast Lane line for Maverick, INSANE!

[The Interpreter]

TTD is Load one Fast Lane ONLY. Load two general public.

If this is correct, isn't it sufficiently increasing the wait time?

Depends. How much is sufficient (enough) for you?

Terpy, good at answering the query asked.

[beastrider97]

TTD is Load one Fast Lane ONLY. Load two general public.

If this is correct, isn't it sufficiently increasing the wait time?

Depends. How much is sufficient (enough) for you?

Terpy, good at answering the query asked.

Significant for me is when the line would have been 1 hour and is increased by 20 minutes or more.

[The Interpreter]

I think you mean significant, not sufficient.

Terpy, trying to help.

[beastrider97]

I think you mean significant, not sufficient.

Terpy, trying to help.

Re-read my posts, and I can't help but feel stupid. Thanks for pointing that out Terpy.

[The Interpreter]

Please don't feel stupid.

And yes, as it is, there is a dramatic effect on wait times for regular riders.

[beastrider97]

Please don't feel stupid.

And yes, as it is, there is a dramatic effect on wait times for regular riders.

That's disappointing considering the always long wait for TTD. If it does make quite an increase, it may possibly lead to a change. While I support Fast Lane, if it raises the wait time on one of the park's star attractions by a large amount, I would hope the implementation would be different.

[PhantomTheater]

The wait is theoreticaly doubled from the same spot in line as last year as the GP line capacity has been slashed in half. However, once you get to the ramp it should be the same amount of time as it was last year, as that capacity remains the same.

[count_of_tuscany]

^CP's carts have a safety stop when one of the carts "crashes".

Once the "crashed" cart is pointed in the correct direction, the stop is released and racing resumes.

I figured that was the case, but you have to imagine how it just seemed to blend in with everything else that wasn't working. Surprisingly, I made a joke that the only thing working consistently were the cash registers but the workers in the Toy Barn said half of their inventory wasn't in the system and thus wouldn't work!

[Dalefan]

I echo Leah's comments. The only places where I noticed no improvements were the bathrooms. The hand dryer on the right in the bathroom near Scrambler hasn't worked since last year and they still have the terribly inefficient hand dryers in the bathroom before the entrance to the park. I think my favorite of the opening day non-working items was the go karts. We were on our way up the lift hill of the Magnum and Leah noticed that both karts that were on the track were completely stopped with people in them. One of the was crashed into the barrier wall. Perhaps it is standard practice to stop all riders if one of them stops but either way it was so appropriate and we were laughing hysterically!

I know that at every go kart track i been to in Ohio, all cars have to stop. It's for the safety of the workers who have to get the cars put back in the right place. And for the drivers too.

[Dalefan]

I know when i went to opening day one year at CP, Millie Force had a major break down. They had got the part made from a company in Ohio so Force could be fixed, and it broke again a few weeks to a month after. They had to get the part from Intamin. The parts shop was in another country. They got the part in the day of Coastermania and had it in and testing and running just in time for ert. I know i seen the lift hill cable real loose when it broke the first time. Everyone was happy. They did have a backup coaster for ert incase Force wasn't ready.

[The Interpreter]

Indeed. More than a dozen of them. Nice of them to do it, too!

[westcoaster]

Great Trip Report, to the Point.